ROCHESTER, NY – Graduate students Phil Erickson (Eau Claire, WI) and Scott Mueller (Nashville, TN), and senior Michael Paterson-Jones (Baldwinsville, NY) from the Wilkes University men's ice hockey team were named 2022-23 United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) Men's Players to Watch as announced by the conference office Tuesday morning.

Erickson, a forward, tallied 26 points on 14 goals and 12 assists last season. He enters 2022-23 with 38 career goals and is second all-time in UCHC history with six shorthanded goals.

Mueller, defenseman, played in all 26 games last season and tallied seven points. He has a career plus-20 rating in 74 games.

Paterson-Jones, a goaltender, finished 11-2-0 last season between the pipes for Wilkes. He is the program's all-time leader with 1,212 career saves and 33 wins.

The Colonels return 17 players from the 2021-22 team that finished 20-5-1, advanced to the UCHC Championship game and ranked 10th in the final USCHO.com Division III National Poll. Wilkes opens the 2022-23 season ranked 11th in the USCHO.com Preseason Poll. Wilkes will look to replace All-Americans Donald Flynn (Randolph, NJ/), Tyler Barrow (Massapequa, NY/Saint Anthony's) and Nick Fea (Oak Ridge, NJ/), who graduated last spring as three of the top four scorers in UCHC history with 148, 132 and 120 points, respectively.

A total of 33 men's players from the league's 11 institutions were selected. The list serves as an annual preseason honor roll of players expected to make an impact on their teams, and on the conference picture as the season gets underway this weekend.

The full 2022-23 UCHC Men's Players to Watch release can be found here.

The Wilkes men's ice hockey team begins its season on Saturday at the Toyota SportsPlex hosting SUNY Cortland at 3:30 p.m. and begin UCHC play on Sunday with a 3:30 p.m. puck drop against King's College at the Toyota SportsPlex.